Background:

Linda and I picked up season passed to Ragged Mountain, as you may know (or if you didn't, no big deal; you do now). However, they are not open yet.

Now, if you've done snowsports with me, you know that this is a bit of a departure from my standard method of downhill madness - I usually run K2 Fatty skiboards at a high rate of speed. This high rate of speed was a problem. Skis of course are capable of much higher velocities with less chatter than skiboards, but unfortunately, Linda isn't a very experienced skier, so her trying to keep up with me is like a bicyclist trying to keep up with a Ferrari.

So, in order to slow myself down, I decided to pick up snowboarding this winter. I purchased a used snowboard+bindings (K2 Zeppelin + Rossignol HC3000 bindings, if you're curious) and new entry-level boots in September. I spent probably 2 hours tinkering with the bindings before getting them to what seemed to be a widely recommended 19" width, 21-degree front angle, 0-degree rear angle

Linda bought some new Rossignol Passion Classic skis for a great price (and got some used boots for free) @ Ken Jones Ski Mart, in Nashua, NH (Don't bother with Sports Authority... they'll sell you a kitchen sink when you want a ski).

This past weekend, we went with my friend Jeff and his girlfriend Cindy to their rental place on the outskirts of Bethel, ME - near Sunday River.

My first run down the mountain on my new-to-me board only brought this image to mind:


I fell more times than I can reasonably count, so I won't try. The second run I fell maybe 10 times, and the the rest of the weekend was down to ~3 on average, with a couple of no-fall runs. I had three nasty falls over the course of the weekend:

* One where my knee got a little bruise (yes - it was nasty - I'll get to why in a minute)
* One where I fell sideways and smashed my helmet on the ground - my neck is sore from that one.
* One where I bruised my tailbone (helmet also hit here, but less hard, and no whiplash effect)

I wore my Cortech GX pants with CE hard armor in the knees... yes, motorcycling pants for snowboarding. Think about it: ballistic nylon, CE approved hard-shell impact armor, and mostly windproof - they were perfect, except they didn't close around my boots so well. So the reason the knee being bruised is weird is that I got bruised *through* the knee armor - it takes a really hard impact to do that. .

I learned that you really torque those bindings down - and carry a screwdriver and some extra hardware, too. My bindings got pretty loose, and I stripped a t-nut and bolt which held a binding on, but managed to make it hold with some moderate cross-threading for the rest of the weekend ... heh. Hail old bindings. Maybe I should replace them ...

The last few runs, I switched to my skiboards and tore down (relatively -- I hadn't been on them in years) some blues + blacks with Jeff and Cindy. Of course, the last 1/3 of the last run was on the green run that I'd bashed myself against the rest of the weekend while attempting to snowboard. It was kind of sad to be just happily cruising down on the skiboards, going as fast as they would go - and thinking "Man, I fell so many times on this run this weekend..."

However... I did accomplish my goal for the weekend: 1 run w/ no falls. :)

Also, snowboarding is a lot of fun. I totally recommend it.

Woke up around 6:20, boiled some water and dumped it into a thermos. Tim, Chris, and I gathered and left at 7AM from Nashua, ate @ Einstein Bros. in Concord and got some last minute stuff at Shaw's - including cocoa for my hot water.

We got to the trailhead at 9AM, and did our last minute packing. According to my car, it was 29 degrees at the base. I dumped come cocoa powder into my thermos, put the cap on, shook it, and ...

BOOOOOOOM

... the cap flew off the thermos at a high velocity and shot about 10 feet. Near-boiling cocoa went everywhere. Apparently the ~30 degree air suddenly being raised to ~200 degrees expanded, creating enough pressure to blow the cap right off. I lost about 1/3 of my cocoa; some of it is still on the back of my car.

I put more cocoa powder in, put cap on loosely, and shook gently this time... I could hear the pressure releasing ;)

We got on the trail around 9:20 and ascended Old Bridle Path. It wasn't too bad. Chris and I had full winter traction gear; Tim only brought instep crampons. We reached the hut in pretty good time and took a break before making the ascent up the rocky part of Lafayette (though it wasn't rocky today... mostly snow-covered).

The final ascent itself wasn't bad - the snow was pretty hard, so it was easy to get footing; no one ended up needing crampons or snowshoes for the whole trip (argh; that means Chris and I could have saved 5-6lbs of weight each...). I was doggin' it, though, probably because I had a cold, or perhaps because I am out of shape. The ascent up the alpine section of Lafayette was accompanied by a constant wind; maybe 35-40m/h.

We had lunch on the downside of the peak (towards Lincoln) in order to get out of the wind for a bit. I had some of what was left of my cocoa, which burned my tongue a bit. Ouch. It was worth it :)

The descent off Lafayette was fast. Slip, slide, bound, bounce, ... Crap, we have to go up again. That was when we got a taste of some pretty high speed wind gusts; maybe 55-60m/h.

The top of Lincoln was mostly deserted because of the wind, I guess. Again, the descent off Lincoln was quick and easy. Though, at this point, my feet were rather ... numb in places. Chris's were cold as well.

The traverse from Lincoln to Little Haystack was insane. The wind was really fierce. We had to stop frequently just to brace against the gusts. The wind was kicking snow into our eyes, making it difficult to see at points, and it knocked Chris and I over a couple of times. I'd put the gust speed around 80m/h. Eventually, I got fed up with all the inching along, so I leaned on the wind, walking diagonally like the people in those old V8 commercials. It was a very strange, but fun, experience.

The other two soon followed. We didn't even bother stopping on the top of Haystack; we'd seen enough snow. - we just bounded down into the trees.

The descent down Falling Waters was more or less uneventful. My feet warmed up pretty quickly. The trail down the river was beautiful, and covered with partially frozen waterfalls, not to mention that we were walking toward the sunset.

We were packed and in the car by 4:30. We did dinner at the Tilton Diner instead of the Common Man, since Tim had to swing by a store in Tilton anyway.

Pictures are here. All pictures were taken by Tim, except the picture of Tim.

We got there an hour early. We got in, staked a spot right behind a railing behind the sound tech and held it the whole concert. We had a spectacular view of the stage for the entire concert.

Paradise Lost opened for Nightwish. Wow! What a great band! Unfortunately (for them), they were an unknown here (though in other parts of the world, they're huge). It made it hard for them to get the audience enthused. I tried to rally people around me but it didn't work at all :( I feel bad for them, but I probably will pick up some of their music now :)

Nightwish was absolutely wonderful. Anette's vocal range is lower than Tarja's - so they had to adjust some of the old songs to accommodate this. She did a fantastic job - and more importantly - she looked happy to be there. Marco sometimes took charge of the concert - man, what a ham :)

"Gooooooood evening Woostah"
"I pronounce okay?"

Marco got to sing "While Your Lips are Still Red" - which isn't on any album - but you can catch the video here if he didn't sing it for you:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=10829690

What we came away with was:

(1) Nightwish is now a very well-balanced band, between the recent addition of Anette and the not-so-recent addition of Marco (who came in w/ Century Child). Everyone in it contributes something meaningful - and no one completely overshadows anyone else. It used to be so easy to fixate on Tarja's unique voice and lose sight of the fact that everyone in the band is rather, well, amazing. This gives them a very rich sound that you might not have noticed before.

(2) Anette was a perfect replacement for Tarja. She couldn't be more different. (yes, you read that right)

(3) Nightwish is going to be around for a long time.

Make no mistake: It's not the "Tarja Turunen, with some other people" show anymore, but what it is - undeniably - is Nightwish.

On Tarja - as I mentioned previously...

She's released a new solo single "I Walk Alone" and her album comes out early next year. It will sound a lot like "Old Nightwish" - because with Tarja out front, the rest almost doesn't matter; you'll focus on her unique voice... it's just how it works.

Needless to say, I'm a fan of Tarja too. I can have my cake and eat it. ;)

So, I beat an egg.  Then I cut up some white chicken breast meat into chunks, dipped it in the egg, then into spiced 4H bread crumbs.

Dropped the cutlets in boiling veggie oil while I cooked some hardwood smoked bacon.

Sliced some tomato and lettuce, and cut some Jack cheese.

After stuff was done being cooked (and cooled/drained/blotted... oily is ... gross), I tossed the chicken and bacon on some multigrain lavash bread, squirted some Sriracha sauce on it.  Then, I put on chunks of jack cheese, wrapped it loosely, and tossed it in the nuker for about 25 seconds to melt the cheese.

Pulled it out, tossed on the veggies and a bit of mayo (and a bit more Sriracha sauce), wrapped it tightly, and ate it.

It was freaking yummy.

The Magic Hat 9 was good too.

For the first time ever, I'm quitting a video game that I was otherwise going to complete.

It's called Need for Speed: Carbon for the Wii.  In 3-4 days or so, I got through the first four sections up to the boss race.  I cleared everything. I found drifting to be a bit difficult, but not too bad once I got the hang of it.

Why quit?  Well, I've spent an equal amount of time on the boss race set at this point. That's right - the boss race set - 4 back to back races that you can't save between.  The very last race in the game.  It's like on a scale of 1-100 (1 being trivial, 100 being totally impossible), the first few races are 1, then the next couple of sections are 5-10.  The first three parts of the boss race are maybe 25, and the boss race itself is more or less impossible.  If 100 is impossible, it's probably a 98 or 99.  You need to score approx. 130,000 on round 1 of the duel.  If you don't, just restart.  If you touch a wall, you should probably restart as well.

I can one-shot the first 3 parts of the boss race set at this point, which is good, because if you press 'A' after losing the final race, you have to start over.  On the final race, I have plateued to getting to 94-95% of round 2 done before I run out of points. I've probably tried it 100 times or so by now.  I've tried four different cars (Lambo M., Skyline, Z06, Evo - all fully decked out).

You basically have to play perfectly.  Nothing in the game prepares you for the final boss race, either -- nothing is anywhere near as difficult.  Oh well, the rest of the game is actually fun. :)

I simply lack the skill to finish it, so I will quit before I end up slitting my wrists in frustration.

Ok, I've been whining about the lack of little sportbikes in the USA for a few months now - and looks like Kawasaki was thinking the same thing.

We've got the Archaic(tm) Ninja 250R - which hasn't changed in like 21 years, and the Hyosung GT250R (aka United Motors V2S) as competition. The Ninja is 70lbs lighter.

Well, Kawasaki outdid themselves with this baby:

2008 Ninja 250R

It's what I whined for. I'm sure it's coincidental that Kawasaki introduced this a few months after I started whining...

Here she is, live, singing Phantom of the Opera in Helsinki from the End of an Era concert - her last performance with Nightwish, if you wanted to see how well she does without any special effects.

New album released on 28th (EU) or Oct 02 (US/North America).

I'm going to see them in concert on Oct. 20 at the Palladium in Worcester, MA. Last time, for their Once tour in 2005 - I missed them for some reason, and was rather upset. Soon after, Tarja (former lead vocalist) left the band, making me worry that I missed my chance.

Well, they hired a new lead singer, who I think is great. Her voice is a lot different from Tarja's - she has a warmer, richer, more full tone. Also, remember that this is her first video/album as part of Nightwish - so she'll grow into the role.

Nightwish - Amaranth: Anette Olzon lead vocalist - Note that 'Amaranth' in this video seems to refer to an inner purity of soul, and not the genus of plants in this context.

Nightwish - Nemo: Tarja Turunen lead vocalist - Their smash that actually made it on to MTV as I understand it.

It bears mentioning that Marco - the bassist - also does some leads on the new album:

Nightwish - While your lips are still red: Marco Tapani Hietala - Off their new album.

It also is important to note that Marco's other band, Tarot, is also quite good, but a bit darker generally. Their song Pyre of Gods off of Suffer our Pleasures is rather angry, but doesn't sound like someone's barfing into the microphone like some forms of heavy metal. Ashes to the Stars is also good stuff.

While I don't think Tarja made Nightwish (I think Tuomas does :) ) - I mean no disrespect to her. Everyone knows she's awesome. Here's a post-Nightwish video entitled I Walk Alone.

There's no reason one can't be a fan of Tarot, Tarja Turunen, and Nightwish. :)

I almost always get chafed, even with expensive wicking underwear, and quite frankly, I'm done with it.

I bought one of these. I suppose you might call it strange, but... well, I really don't care.

For hot summer days, nothing beats a kilt. This is something I found out at Pennsic this year. I procured a kilt and wore it on one of the hotter days (95 degrees / 90% humidity) in complete comfort - and that one was heavy and made of wool. I figure I'll give it a shot the next hot hiking / backpacking day (might be next year).

The funny thing is that arguably, the Mountain Kilt from Mountain Hardwear isn't actually a kilt; kilt by definition is "pleat". It's also strangely absent from their website; I guess they tried it 2001/2002 and again in 2005 but it probably didn't sell so well. Too bad, I guess.